Interactive CD-ROM's, the
future of student affairs
recruiting?
Nathanael
C. Barnes
Western Illinois
University
In the recent past, the student affairs field has been
experiencing a shortage of candidates for entry-level
positions. At placement conferences across the country there
have been more positions than candidates in attendance.
Oshkosh Placement
Exchange, for example, one of the larger regional
placement conferences in the country, had 458 positions open
at the 1999 conference and 430 candidates in attendance. If
every candidate had been offered and accepted a position,
over 6% of the jobs not filled. While we know that not every
candidate was offered a position and some of the positions
were filled at other placement conferences, there were and
will be campuses that welcome students in the fall without a
full staff.
This lack of interest in the field will prompt schools to
adopt more aggressive and innovative recruitment strategies.
Technology will be at the forefront of the approaches to
recruitment as school look to make their student affairs
position more and more attractive to the smaller market of
candidates.
One of the schools that has jumped to the forefront using
technology for recruiting is the University
of Wisconsin-Whitewater Office of Residence Life.
Candidates interested in potential employment as an
assistant hall director or a hall director are sent an
interactive CD-ROM describing not only the position and the
Office of Residence Life, but also the University.
This CD-ROM takes the place of the traditional mailings
that are sent to interested candidates. The candidate is
immersed into the Office of Residence Life and the
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater all from the comfort of a
personal computer. Traditional mailings sent to interested
candidates shows only pictures and words, but through the
process of using an interactive CD-ROM; sound, video and a
comprehensive description make the candidate feel as if they
are being wooed by a Fortune 500 company.
Interactive and Imaginative
One of the first features that makes this way of
recruitment even more appealing is the minimal system
requirements for performance. The program is run using
Macromedia and
QuickTime. If
the computer that the CD is being viewed on does not have
either of these, they are installed for the user off of the
CD. All that is left to do is sit back and watch as the
Office of Residence Life at the University of
Wisconsin-Whitewater unfolds before you.
The interactive segments of the CD-ROM are broken down
into six parts for the candidate to explore. Within each
area, delineation is made between professional and graduate
positions. This allows one CD-ROM to be produced for both
positions, saving on costs for University of
Wisconsin-Whitewater and the CD-ROM to be retained by an
individual or residence life department for future use with
both perspective graduates and professionals.
Each area has a narration along with some full motion
video or multimedia presentation. Viewers are able to
manipulate the video to review parts again or fast forward
to other parts of the video. Each video is approximately two
minutes in length with the narration talking over the entire
video presentation. Highlights of each section are listed
down the side and all of the narration is available in text
that is scrollable for those with no sound cards or hearing
impairments.
Each of the segments covers an area that a candidate
would be interested in knowing more about should they seek
employment with UW-Whitewater:
- Overview of UW-Whitewater
A quick look at the university; its history, location,
academics and national accolades
- Residence Life Overview
Organization of the Residence Life Department including
it's mission statement and its relation to the
UW-Whitewater campus.
- Residence Hall Students
Discusses the students who live in the halls, their
living options and the involvement opportunities that
exist for the students within their residence hall
communities
- Job Description
Describes both the professional and graduate level jobs
within the halls and how they relate to each other.
- Perks & Benefits
Salary, benefits, UW-Whitewater's domestic partnership
policy and a video tour of the apartments highlight this
section.
- Professional Growth
As a main focus of the department, the opportunities for
on and off campus professional development are
highlighted.
All of the features of this CD-ROM are inclusive of any
mailing that would be sent to interested candidates; in
fact, they go above and beyond. Through the innovative use
of technology, you walk on campus, tour facilities and see
the residence life staff at work, all from the comfort of a
home or office computer. This CD-ROM and products like it
may soon replace the paper mailings sent to perspective
candidates. Regardless if this becomes a very successful
recruiting tool, the UW-Whitewater Office of Residence Life
has taken large steps to insure that perspective candidates
will have a unique experience as they learn more about the
department and the University. This recruitment tool may not
be able to makeup for the job crisis we are beginning to
face, but it is one University's attempt to make themselves
and their residence life department stand out to
candidates.
For more information please contact:
Sandi Scott Duex
Assistant Director of Residence Life for Residential
Education
Suite 200 Goodhue Hall
Whitewater, WI 53190
Office Phone: (262) 472-5275
duexs@mail.uww.edu
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